Running
by CallMeGeneralAwesome
Summary: Red Cricket one-shot. Inspired by the scene in 2x10 with Archie, Regina, and Ruby. Ruby and Archie have already met more than once on that road. Ruby thinks about Archie after he "dies" in 2x10.


**Hey y'all. I will update my other story soon, promise. The next chapter of that is huge so it is taking forever to write. It'll be worth the wait, though. If you haven't read it, please check it out. It is listed as Rumple/Belle, but it does have a ton of Red Cricket, too. :D**

**Anyway, this is a little one-shot that's been bouncing around in my mind since "The Cricket Game" aired. It is inspired by the scene where Archie and Regina talk near the dock and Ruby is running and sees them and Regina tells her to take herself for a walk (which, in my opinion, may be the best Regina line ever). But yeah, this story is inspired by that and I hope y'all like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.**

Running

Ruby loved her morning runs. She used to prefer running in wolf form, but now there really was a toss-up between which way of running she loved more.

It wasn't the physical act of running in human form that she loved, though. She ran every morning through town, eventually passing the docks. It was then that she usually enjoyed her runs most.

Archie loved his daily morning walk with Pongo. Pongo was always well-behaved around Archie's patients and everyone loved him. Everyone loved Archie, too, as nearly everyone in town had asked him for advice at some point or another.

On his morning walks with Pongo, Archie usually came across the one person who never asked his advice. That made her all the more intriguing to him. When they spoke, he wasn't a therapist or a doctor, he was a person. And he was thinking he was starting to love how Ruby made him feel that way.

Neither Ruby nor Archie could remember the first time they met because of the curse, but they both remembered the first time they ran into each other. It was the morning of the day Henry left for Boston and brought Emma to town, though Archie and Ruby didn't know that then.

It began innocently enough. Ruby was running and turned onto the road along the docks. For reasons they didn't understand at the time, Pongo went crazy as soon as Ruby turned onto the road. He got very excited, so much so that he broke free of Archie and ran to Ruby knocking her to the ground.

"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed, looking up and seeing a Dalmatian on her. She laughed and pet his head. "Hey there." She sat up.

Archie came running over. "I am so sorry!" he said. "Pongo, heel!"

"No, it's okay," Ruby said, grinning and playing with the dog. "He's a good boy."

"He really seems to like you," Archie pointed out.

Ruby shrugged. "Dogs seem to like me. I guess I'm a dog person." She went to get up.

"Here," Archie said, offering his hand to help her up. Ruby gratefully took it and got to her feet, while holding Archie's hand for a split-second longer than necessary.

"Thank you," Ruby said.

There was a brief silence, as neither of them knew what to say. They both felt that moment, whatever it was, and didn't know how to address it, or if they even wanted to. Finally, Ruby spoke up.

"I'm new to this route," she said "I've never run down here before, today is my first day on this route, so he probably just got a little excited to see someone new."

"Yeah, Pongo does love new people."

Ruby smiled shyly. "Well, I better get going."

"Yeah, me too," Archie agreed.

"Thanks for helping me up, Doctor Hopper," Ruby said.

"You can call me Archie."

Ruby grinned. "Okay. Thank you, _Archie._"

With that, she jogged off. Archie picked up Pongo's leash and patted the dog on the head.

"Good boy," he said.

And so it began. From that day forward, Ruby always stopped to talk with Archie when she ran past the docks. They spoke about simple things like the weather or the goings on in town, like the sheriff election.

"Hey Archie," Ruby said as she ran up to him.

"Ruby," Archie replied warmly.

"Pongo!" Ruby said excitedly, crouching down to pet the dog. She looked up at Archie. "So I hear you are moderating the debate."

Archie nodded. "Yeah. It will be…interesting."

"Why?" Ruby asked. "What do you think will happen?"

"Miss Swan has a lot of heart," Archie said. "And Mr. Glass is…I'm not sure, I just don't have a great feeling about him."

"Yeah, I got the same vibe," Ruby admitted. "It is good Emma is running. I think Regina controls Glass."

Archie gave her a quizzical look.

Ruby shrugged. "What? You hear a lot working at the diner."

Archie laughed. "Okay, Ruby. Speaking of the diner, how is Granny?"

"She's doing well," Ruby said. "The diner is getting busy, but that's usual for this time of year. You should stop by sometime. I'm sure I could swing you some coffee, on the house." She grinned slyly.

Archie grinned back. "No thanks," he said. "I'm not much for coffee. It makes me very…jumpy."

Ruby's face fell a bit. "Oh," she said. "Okay then. I should get going, anyway."

"Okay," Archie said, slightly puzzled. Ruby jogged a few feet away, then the realization hit Archie.

"Ruby!" he called.

She turned.

"I haven't had coffee in a while," he said. "Maybe I could give it another shot."

Ruby smiled. "Maybe," she replied in a playful tone. She turned and jogged off again.

Archie started to go the diner more often. If he had a day when he didn't have too many appointments with patients, he'd stop in for lunch. Archie and Ruby developed a comfortable, albeit somewhat secret, friendship. No one really knew they were friends; to everyone else they were just a waitress and a customer, a doctor and a patient.

After the curse broke, though, they were seen differently. They were a cricket and a wolf. Still not an obviously combination, but as everyone was often reminded, things were changing.

As Ruby ran the morning after the curse broke, she was moderately surprised to see Archie on the docks.

"Archie," she said. "I thought you'd be in town, calming people down."

"The Prince seems to have a handle on that, don't you think?" he asked. He gestured to Pongo. "Besides, he gets kind of restless if I don't walk him."

Ruby smiled and pet the dog. "He just loves seeing me."

"Can you blame him?" Archie said without thinking.

Ruby's head snapped up and she looked a little surprised. She went to say something, but Archie spoke first.

"I mean, he loves you," Archie said quickly, trying to stop Ruby from saying something in response to what he said. He didn't mean it like how she took it, in some sort of flirty way. At least, he thought he didn't. He didn't mean to be somewhat flirty, it just came out. "You are probably his favorite person here."

"Including you?" Ruby asked, having regained her composure.

Archie chuckled. "Probably."

"It's probably the wolf thing," Ruby reasoned. "He probably could tell, even when none of us remembered."

"Boy, am I glad Emma broke the curse," Archie said.

"Me too," Ruby said. "It is so great to have everyone back to how they were, more or less. I can't believe I forgot who Snow was. And I can't believe I forgot I was a wolf!"

Archie grinned. "Imagine forgetting you're a cricket."

Ruby laughed. "I imagine it is startling."

Archie shrugged. "It's a part of me, you know? I can't change, anymore than you could change being a wolf."

Ruby grinned softly at him, then changed the subject. "So, are you going to go help out in town?"

"Yeah," Archie said, nodding. "People are generally trying to find their loved ones now, but I am assuming a lot of people will want to talk this out later. I think I may set up open sessions, like meetings, in which people can come in and talk about whatever they want to. A lot of people are angry, and talking it out may help prevent that anger from getting violent."

"You're a good guy, Archie," Ruby said. Archie looked up at her. "You are devoting your time to these people. It is a nice thing. Everyone needs some time to adjust to this, I think, and instead of taking time to do it on your own your helping others instead."

"Maybe this is how I adjust," Archie said.

Ruby considered that for a moment. "Well," she began after a short, thoughtful silence. "I should get back. I pretty much had to beg Granny to let me run today, she didn't want me out of her sight after forgetting who we are for twenty-eight years."

Archie was about to ask why she wanted to run so badly today, but he thought he might have already known.

"Yeah, you should get back," Archie said. "Give Granny my best."

"I will," Ruby promised. "Oh, and if you have those meetings you mentioned, let me know. I'm sure we can provide coffee and refreshments for them, if you want."

"That would be great," Archie said. "I'll talk to Snow and James about it."

Ruby grinned. "Cool. Well, I'll see you around."

Archie waved and Ruby ran off.

The day after Snow and Emma returned for the Enchanted Forest, Ruby and Archie met again on their respective morning run and walk, which was interrupted by Regina. So, Ruby did not get much of a chance to talk to Archie.

With Snow and Emma being back, Ruby decided the time was good. Even perfect, maybe. Things were falling into place and things were stable in the town. There wasn't any grave danger, there wasn't the curse anymore – except for the fact that they couldn't cross the border, but Ruby didn't have any plans to leave – and everyone seemed more or less happy. Ruby decided she wanted to ask out Archie. After more than a year of initially casual but eventually comfortable conversation and timid flirting, Ruby decided to ask Archie out. She knew she had feelings for him and she hoped-backslash-believed he had feelings for her, too. All their conversations couldn't have just polite chit chat, right? They had to be something more. At least, to Ruby, they were. So, she was going to ask him out to dinner, at a place that wasn't the diner. She knew Archie would be too shy and nervous to make the first move, so she gladly took it upon herself to do so. At least, that was what she planned on doing.

Then Archie died. Regina killed him.

The next morning, Ruby showed up at Rumplestiltskin's house in her running clothes. Belle answered the door.

"Hey, Ruby," Belle said. "How are you?"

"Hi," Ruby replied, not making eye contact. She hadn't made eye contact with anyone or smiled since she entered Archie's office with Emma and saw that he was dead. "You two are taking care of Pongo, right?"

Belle nodded. "Yeah."

"Is it okay if I take him on a walk this morning?" Ruby asked. "I know the route Archie took him on every morning. He gets really restless if he doesn't get walked everyday."

"Of course," Belle said, going inside to get the leash and Pongo. She returned in the doorway with a despondent looking Dalmatian.

Ruby felt another pain in her heart. She always knew Pongo to be happy and energetic; it broke her heart to see him so sad. She could relate to what he was feeling.

Ruby took the leash. "Thanks," she said to Belle while petting Pongo.

"Ruby, if you want to talk-."

"I'll be back in about an hour, okay?" Ruby said, cutting Belle off. She was not in the mood to talk, and she wasn't sure she would be at any point soon.

"Okay," Belle conceded. She wordlessly pulled her friend into a hug.

So far in their short friendship, Ruby learned that Belle gave the best hugs. It was puzzling, since Belle spent twenty-eight years alone. Then again, maybe that was why she was so good at it.

Ruby pushed the thought from her mind. She stood stoically as Belle hugged her. Usually, a hug from Belle could instantly make Ruby feel better, but Ruby felt nothing. She half-heartedly hugged Belle back.

Belle released Ruby from the hug. "You can keep him as long as you want, okay?" Belle said, referring to Pongo. "You're pretty much his favorite person here, anyway."

Ruby faked a weak smile. "Thanks." She turned and left.

She ran with Pongo along her usual route. She turned on the street along the docks, those all-too-familiar docks. Ruby slowed to a walk, as if trying to either avoid the unavoidable moment in which she would pass _their _spot or trying to soak up this place and make her time there last as long as possible.

She came across the spot at which they always spoke and took Pongo to a nearby bench. She sat on the bench and he sat in front of her, facing her and looking her in the eye with sadness only she could understand.

"I know, Pongo," she said, gently petting his head to try to comfort him. "I miss him, too."

She began to cry as she leaned down and hugged the dog close. Her cries turned to sobs and her whole body shook with how hard she cried.

Aside from Pongo, on that dock she was all alone.

**The end. Hope y'all liked it. Please leave a review and let me know if you like it! :D And if you didn't like it, please leave a review telling me why so I can improve as a writer!**

**Thank you very much and have a fantastic day! :D**


End file.
